1、 Yang Lan: The generation thats remaking China杨澜：重塑中国的一代The night before I was heading for Scotland, I was invited to host the final of “Chinas Got Talent“ show in Shanghai with the 80,000 live audience in the stadium. Guess who was the performing guest? Susan Boyle. And I told her, “Im going to Sco
2、tland the next day.“ She sang beautifully, and she even managed to say a few words in Chinese. Chinese:送你葱 So its not like “hello“ or “thank you,“ that ordinary stuff. It means “green onion for free.“ Why did she say that? Because it was a line from our Chinese parallel Susan Boyle - a 50-some year-
3、old woman, a vegetable vendor in Shanghai, who loves singing Western opera, but she didnt understand any English or French or Italian, so she managed to fill in the lyrics with vegetable names in Chinese. (Laughter) And the last sentence of Nessun Dorma that she was singing in the stadium was “green
4、 onion for free.“ So as Susan Boyle was saying that, 80,000 live audience sang together. That was hilarious. 在我去苏格兰的前一晚，中国达人秀邀请我到上海主持总决赛体育馆的现场有八万名观众.知道特别嘉宾是谁吗？苏珊大妈.我告诉她， “我明天要去苏格兰.“她不但歌声非常动听，还学会了说几句中文.她说:“送你葱 ”这句话的意思不是“你好,” “谢谢,”那类的话.“送你葱“意思是“免费的大葱 .”她为什么要说这句话呢 ?因为“送你葱 ”是来自有着“ 中国苏珊大妈“之称的一位五十多岁在上海卖菜的
5、女摊贩,她非常喜欢西方歌剧,但她不懂歌词的意思也不会说英语,法语,或是意大利语,所以她以独特的方式来记歌词将歌词全部换成蔬菜名.（笑声）意大利歌剧公主彻夜未眠的最后一句她当时就是以“送你葱“ 来演唱的.当苏珊大妈说了这句话的时候,现场的八万名观众一起跟着唱了起来.当时的场面十分有趣.So I guess both Susan Boyle and this vegetable vendor in Shanghai belonged to otherness. They were the least expected to be successful in the business called
6、entertainment, yet their courage and talent brought them through. And a show and a platform gave them the stage to realize their dreams. Well, being different is not that difficult. We are all different from different perspectives. But I think being different is good, because you present a different
7、 point of view. You may have the chance to make a difference. 我想苏珊大妈还有那位上海的卖菜大婶都有她们的独特之处.大家通常会觉得她们无法在娱乐圈这个行业里闯出天下,但是才能和勇气让她们得到了肯定.一场秀和一个平台让她们有了一个可以圆梦的舞台.其实要与众不同不是什么难事.我们都有独特之处从不同的角度来看.但我觉得与众不同其实很好,因为你有不同的想法.你也许可以在某一方面有影响.My generation has been very fortunate to witness and participate in the histori
8、c transformation of China that has made so many changes in the past 20, 30 years. I remember that in the year of 1990, when I was graduating from college, I was applying for a job in the sales department of the first five-star hotel in Beijing, Great Wall Sheraton - its still there. So after being i
9、nterrogated by this Japanese manager for a half an hour, he finally said, “So, Miss Yang, do you have any questions to ask me?“ I summoned my courage and poise and said, “Yes, but could you let me know, what actually do you sell?“ I didnt have a clue what a sales department was about in a five-star
10、hotel. That was the first day I set my foot in a five-star hotel. 我这个年代的人是幸运的我们目睹并参与了中国历史性的变化.在过去的二，三十年里中国发生了很多变化.我还记得 1990 年的时候.我刚好读完大学,我当时申请了一个营销的工作地点是北京的一个五星级宾馆,这个宾馆现在还有,叫喜来登长城饭店.在被一位日本经理询问了半小时之后,他在面试要结束时说,“杨小姐，你有问题要问我吗?“我鼓起了勇气，镇定地问，“你能不能告诉我 ,你们卖什么的 ?“因为我当时完全不知道一个五星级饭店的销售部要做什么.那是我第一次走进一家五星级饭店.Aro
11、und the same time, I was going through an audition - the first ever open audition by national television in China - with another thousand college girls. The producer told us they were looking for some sweet, innocent and beautiful fresh face. So when it was my turn, I stood up and said, “Why do wome
12、ns personalities on television always have to be beautiful, sweet, innocent and, you know, supportive? Why cant they have their own ideas and their own voice?“ I thought I kind of offended them. But actually, they were impressed by my words. And so I was in the second round of competition, and then
13、the third and the fourth. After seven rounds of competition, I was the last one to survive it. So I was on a national television prime-time show. And believe it or not, that was the first show on Chinese television that allowed its hosts to speak out of their own minds without reading an approved sc
14、ript. (Applause) And my weekly audience at that time was between 200 to 300 million people. 与此同时,我参加了由中国国家电台举办的试听会这是第一个向大众开放的试听会现场还有上千名的女大生.制作人告诉我们他们在找甜美，单纯和漂亮的新面孔.当轮到我的时候,我起身问道,“为什么在电视上的女人一定要长得漂亮，甜美，单纯还要配合度高?为什么她们不能有自己的想法说自己的话?“我以为我的话可能有点冒犯了评委 .但我的话反而得到了他们的认同.因此我进入了第二回合,然后第三，第四.在第七回合比赛结束后,我战胜了所有的选手
15、.我也因此在加入了黄金档的一个节目.你也许不敢相信,这个节目是中国第一个允许主持人表达他们自己的想法他们不需要念之前写好的稿.（掌声）我当时每周的观众人数达到200-300 万.Well after a few years, I decided to go to the U.S. and Columbia University to pursue my postgraduate studies, and then started my own media company, which was unthought of during the years that I started my car
16、eer. So we do a lot of things. Ive interviewed more than a thousand people in the past. And sometimes I have young people approaching me say, “Lan, you changed my life,“ and I feel proud of that. But then we are also so fortunate to witness the transformation of the whole country. I was in Beijings
17、bidding for the Olympic Games. I was representing the Shanghai Expo. I saw China embracing the world and vice versa. But then sometimes Im thinking, what are todays young generation up to? How are they different, and what are the differences they are going to make to shape the future of China, or at
18、 large, the world? 几年以后,我决定去美国的哥伦比亚大学读研究所,同时也创办了自己的媒体公司,这个想法在我刚刚入行的时候并不存在.公司的项目分很多类.我访问过的人数已经过千.有时候年轻人会对我说,“杨澜姐 ,你改变了我的人生 ,“这些话让我感到骄傲 .我觉我这代人很幸运因为我们看到了整个国家的兴起.北京竞标奥运的举办权我有在场.我也代表了上海市博会.我看到了中国拥抱全世界也看到了全世界拥抱中国.但我有时会想,现在的年轻人到底要做什么?他们到底有什么不同之处,有什么样的变化会因他们而产生这些变化会怎样改变中国，甚至整个世界?So today I want to talk abo
19、ut young people through the platform of social media. First of all, who are they? What do they look like? Well this is a girl called Guo Meimei - 20 years old, beautiful. She showed off her expensive bags, clothes and car on her microblog, which is the Chinese version of Twitter. And she claimed to
20、be the general manager of Red Cross at the Chamber of Commerce. She didnt realize that she stepped on a sensitive nerve and aroused national questioning, almost a turmoil, against the credibility of Red Cross. The controversy was so heated that the Red Cross had to open a press conference to clarify
21、 it, and the investigation is going on. 所以我今天的话题是关于年轻一代通过社交媒体的平台来认识他们.首先，他们是谁?长得什么样?照片上的女孩叫郭美美 20 岁，很漂亮.在她的微博上,她炫耀了自己的名牌包,衣服,还有车在她的微博上,微博是中国版的 Twitter.她还说自己是商会红十字会在商会的一名经理。她没有想到她的举动引起了大众的敏感导致了一场全国性的质问,差一点变成一场针对红十字会的骚乱.这场争论非常激烈以至于红十字会开了一场记者会来澄清“郭美美事件,“ 该事件也因此被调查.So far, as of today, we know that she
22、herself made up that title - probably because she feels proud to be associated with charity. All those expensive items were given to her as gifts by her boyfriend, who used to be a board member in a subdivision of Red Cross at Chamber of Commerce. Its very complicated to explain. But anyway, the pub
23、lic still doesnt buy it. It is still boiling. It shows us a general mistrust of government or government-backed institutions, which lacked transparency in the past. And also it showed us the power and the impact of social media as microblog. 现今为止,公众已知道郭美美给自己捏造了红十字会经理的职位也许是因为她喜欢慈善二字.她的那些奢侈品是男朋友送的礼物她的
24、男友之前是一名董事会成员在商会红十字会下属的一个部门工作.这个解释起来有点困难.尽管如此，公众愤怒仍未平息.热论还在进行中.这个事件说明了民众对政府机构或是政府所支持的机构的不信任,而这些机构在过去都不够透明.这个事件也说明了社交网站的力量和影响.微博就是个很好的例子.Microblog boomed in the year of 2010, with visitors doubled and time spent on it tripled. S, a major news portal, alone has more than 140 million microbloggers. On T
25、encent, 200 million. The most popular blogger - its not me - its a movie star, and she has more than 9.5 million followers, or fans. About 80 percent of those microbloggers are young people, under 30 years old. And because, as you know, the traditional media is still heavily controlled by the govern
26、ment, social media offers an opening to let the steam out a little bit. But because you dont have many other openings, the heat coming out of this opening is sometimes very strong, active and even violent. 微博在 2010 年兴起,访客人数翻倍浏览时间更是之前的三倍.单是新浪网,一个主要的新闻网站,就有超过 1.4 亿的微博用户.腾讯网,2 亿.有最多人关注的用户不是我是个电影女演员，她有超
27、过九百五十万的跟随者,网上的叫法是粉丝.大约有 80%的微博用户都是年轻人,年龄在30 岁以下.大家应该都知道传统媒体依然由政府控制,社交网站提供了一个平台让大家可以表达自己的不满.因为其它的平台不多,来自社交网站的激愤有时可以变得非常强烈,非常活跃甚至带有暴力.So through microblogging, we are able to understand Chinese youth even better. So how are they different? First of all, most of them were born in the 80s and 90s, under
28、 the one-child policy. And because of selected abortion by families who favored boys to girls, now we have ended up with 30 million more young men than women. That could pose a potential danger to the society, but who knows; were in a globalized world, so they can look for girlfriends from other cou
29、ntries. Most of them have fairly good education. The illiteracy rate in China among this generation is under one percent. In cities, 80 percent of kids go to college. But they are facing an aging China with a population above 65 years old coming up with seven-point-some percent this year, and about
30、to be 15 percent by the year of 2030. And you know we have the tradition that younger generations support the elders financially, and taking care of them when theyre sick. So it means young couples will have to support four parents who have a life expectancy of 73 years old. 通过微博,我们可以进一步地了解在中国年轻的一代.
31、但他们到底有什么不同之处?第一,他们大部分是 80 后和 90 后,出生在一胎化政策的年代.因为有了选择性的流产很多家长选择要男不要女,后果就是现今男人的数量超出女人数量的 3 千万.这个差别让社会存在一种潜在危险,但没人敢确定;因为我们生活在一个全球化的世界 ,男生们可以到其它国家找女友.年轻人里的大多数都受过不错的教育.中国这一代的文盲人数少于百分之一.在城市里,有 80%的学生上大学.但他们面对的是一个在变化的中国今年,年龄超过 65 的人口已经达到百分之 7 点几,到2030 年人口老化会达到 15%.大家也许知道我们的传统是年轻的这一代有义务供养老的一代,在他们生病时候照顾他们.这意
32、味着已成家的年轻人将需要供养 4 位父母他们的预期寿命是 73 岁.So making a living is not that easy for young people. College graduates are not in short supply. In urban areas, college graduates find the starting salary is about 400 U.S. dollars a month, while the average rent is above $500. So what do they do? They have to shar
33、e space - squeezed in very limited space to save money - and they call themselves “tribe of ants.“ And for those who are ready to get married and buy their apartment, they figured out they have to work for 30 to 40 years to afford their first apartment. That ratio in America would only cost a couple
34、 five years to earn, but in China its 30 to 40 years with the skyrocketing real estate price. 年轻一代的日子不是那么好过.大学毕业生的供应超过需求.在城市里,大学毕业生的起薪大约在 400 美金一个月,但平均的房屋每月租金超过 500 美金.那怎么办呢?他们只能一起住挤在一个狭小的空间里就为了省钱他们称自己为“蚁族.“ 至于那些打算结婚还要买房的人 ,他们认识到自己要打 30-40 年的工才能买得起一套住房 .美国的比例是一对夫妻 5 年的薪水可买一套房,但在中国需要 30-40 年因为房价的高涨 .
35、Among the 200 million migrant workers, 60 percent of them are young people. They find themselves sort of sandwiched between the urban areas and the rural areas. Most of them dont want to go back to the countryside, but they dont have the sense of belonging. They work for longer hours with less incom
36、e, less social welfare. And theyre more vulnerable to job losses, subject to inflation, tightening loans from banks, appreciation of the renminbi, or decline of demand from Europe or America for the products they produce. Last year, though, an appalling incident in a southern OEM manufacturing compo
37、und in China: 13 young workers in their late teens and early 20s committed suicide, just one by one like causing a contagious disease. But they died because of all different personal reasons. But this whole incident aroused a huge outcry from society about the isolation, both physical and mental, of
38、 these migrant workers. 在两亿的离乡打工族中,60%是年轻人 .他们觉得自己有点被夹在城市和乡村之间.他们大多数都不想回农村,但在城市他们没有归属感.他们的工作时间长薪水却相对较少，社会福利也不多.很多因素都会影响他们像失业,通货膨胀,银行贷款政策紧缩,人民币升值,或是欧美国家对中国产品需求的下降.去年,一场悲剧在中国南方的设备生产工厂发生了:13 名工人年纪在20 岁左右自杀,就像是一场传染病一样.只是死亡原因不同.整个事件引起了社会的关注.大家开始关心这些工人身体和心理上的孤单.For those who do return back to the countrys
39、ide, they find themselves very welcome locally, because with the knowledge, skills and networks they have learned in the cities, with the assistance of the Internet, theyre able to create more jobs, upgrade local agriculture and create new business in the less developed market. So for the past few y
40、ears, the coastal areas, they found themselves in a shortage of labor. 有些选择返回乡村的人,当地人十分欢迎他们回乡,因为他们在城市获得了知识，技术，和人际关系,通过互联网的帮助,他们可以创造更多工作,在发展较落后的地区将农业升级并创造更多商机.过去几年里,在临海区域,出现劳动力短缺的现象.These diagrams show a more general social background. The first one is the Engels coefficient, which explains that the
41、cost of daily necessities has dropped its percentage all through the past decade, in terms of family income, to about 37-some percent. But then in the last two years, it goes up again to 39 percent, indicating a rising living cost. The Gini coefficient has already passed the dangerous line of 0.4. N
42、ow its 0.5 - even worse than that in America - showing us the income inequality. And so you see this whole society getting frustrated about losing some of its mobility. And also, the bitterness and even resentment towards the rich and the powerful is quite widespread. So any accusations of corruptio
43、n or backdoor dealings between authorities or business would arouse a social outcry or even unrest. 这些图表显示一个更概括的社会状况.第一个是恩格尔系数,它解释了每天生活必需的花费的百分比在过去的 10 年内,从家庭收入的角度来看,已经下降到 37%.但是在过去的两年里,这个比例上涨到 39%,这说明了生活花费在上升 .吉尼系数显示已经过了 0.4 的警戒线.现在是 0.5比美国还差说明的收入不平等.你能看到整个社会都感到沮丧因为他们失去了一部分的流动性.同时,针对富人和有权利人士的怨恨与憎恨开
44、始蔓延.所以各种对腐败或是官商勾结的指控都可造成社会的谴责甚至动乱.So through some of the hottest topics on microblogging, we can see what young people care most about. Social justice and government accountability runs the first in what they demand. For the past decade or so, a massive urbanization and development have let us witne
45、ss a lot of reports on the forced demolition of private property. And it has aroused huge anger and frustration among our young generation. Sometimes people get killed, and sometimes people set themselves on fire to protest. So when these incidents are reported more and more frequently on the Intern
46、et, people cry for the government to take actions to stop this. 通过观察微博上一些最热门的话题,我们可以更了解年轻的一代.社会公正与政府责任是他们最关心的问题.在过去的十年里,大量的城市化发展让我们看见了很多有关强拆私人住宅的报导.这些新闻引起了年轻人的不满和失望.过程中有时有人死亡,也有人以自焚来抗议.当这类报导大量在互联网上出现的时候,人们强烈要求政府出面制止.So the good news is that earlier this year, the state council passed a new regulatio
47、n on house requisition and demolition and passed the right to order forced demolition from local governments to the court. Similarly, many other issues concerning public safety is a hot topic on the Internet. We heard about polluted air, polluted water, poisoned food. And guess what, we have faked b
48、eef. They have sorts of ingredients that you brush on a piece of chicken or fish, and it turns it to look like beef. And then lately, people are very concerned about cooking oil, because thousands of people have been found refining cooking oil from restaurant slop. So all these things have aroused a
49、 huge outcry from the Internet. And fortunately, we have seen the government responding more timely and also more frequently to the public concerns. 好消息是在今年早期,国务院在房屋申请和拆建方面颁布了一项新政策同时允许法庭传唤那些强拆的地方政府官员.还有很有其它让民众担忧的问题在互联网上受到了强烈议论.大家应该都听说过空气污染,水源污染,有毒食品.但应该不知道我们还发明了山寨版牛肉吧.这种牛肉精包含多种成分如果你把它们涂在鸡肉或是鱼肉上面,那就鸡鱼肉看起来就像牛肉了.最近,民众们开始担心食用油,原因是有上千的人发现餐馆使用的油是加工过的阴沟油.这类现象在互联网上引起了大众的强烈不满.幸运地是,我们看到政府更及时和更平常地来消除公众的担忧.While young people seem to be very sure about their participation in public policy-making, but sometimes theyre a little bit lost in terms
